Deputy PM Asks for Report on Bank Equitisation Process

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung has asked the State Bank of Vietnam to report the equitisation process of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank) and the Mekong Housing Development Bank (MHB) before October 30, 2006.

 

The deputy PM has also instructed the central bank to make a comprehensive assessment of Vietcombank’s corporate bond issuance. He has urged the acceleration of necessary steps to implement the Prime Minister’s decisions on equitising state owned banks in the trial period. The equitisation of the bank is proceeding quite slowly.

 

Prior to such a move, PM Nguyen Tan Dung urged Vietcombank and MHB to speed up their plans to equitise banks and implement the parts of the equitisation approved by the Prime Minister. The equitisation process of the two banks must be completed in 2007, and this should be seen as an obligatory step in the process of restructuring the banks to make them adapted to the global economic integration.

 

The Prime Minister has also agreed in principle to the plan to equitise three other state owned banks, including the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV), the Vietnam Industrial and Commercial Bank (Vietincombank) and Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank).

 

The equitisation process of the three banks will also be implemented in two stages. In the first phase, the banks will have to improve their financial capability to meet international standards. BIDV and Agribank will have to complete the first phase by the end of 2006, while Agribank, in 2007. In the second stage, starting in 2007, BIDV and Vietincombank will begin to equitise, while Agribank will begin its equitisation process in 2008.